Gene Johnson is donating his memoirs to East Gadsden High School to be used as reference material for students concerning his many historical endeavors including the second congressional investigation into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Johnson grew up in Quincy, worked in the tobacco fields of Gadsden County, and was a member of the first graduating class of Carter Parramore High School in 1956.

It was the first year that the black community had an indoor gym and he was the captain of the basketball team. “I made the first basket ever made in the gym,” he said.

The school had a grass football field, he explained, which was different than the “hard as cement” red clay at the old Stevens High School.

He was also the first quarterback on the football team.

Johnson would leave home to make his way in the world and become one of the most prestigious lawyers in Washington D.C.

His journey led along a path that placed him as the lead counsel in the second U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Assassinations for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In a recent interview Johnson spoke about his many experiences including the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination in Memphis, Tennessee in April of 1968, the investigation, and his plans to leave his memoirs and historical papers at East Gadsden High School for students to use as reference material and display.

Although his original plans had been to become a preacher or a president of one of the nation’s black colleges after graduating from Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee where he attended on a basketball scholarship, and Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. he became an Assistant United States Attorney.

That responsibility led to Johnson becoming the first black attorney assigned to the Internal Security Division of the United States’ Department of Justice.

After seven years in that position, Johnson was asked to Capital Hill to become the chief counsel to the congressional select committee on assassinations’ sub-committee involving the second investigation of the 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. case.

During that investigation, he said, everywhere he went the FBI had already been there conducting their original investigation.

“I had the composite of their files to work out of,” he said.

“They had done a marvelous job,” Johnson said of the original investigation of Dr. King’s assassination.

Over the course of the investigation he traveled through Europe and the United States tracing the footsteps of James Earl Ray, the man responsible for shooting King.

Johnson explained that Ray had been apprehended at Heathrow Airport in London, England after having traveled extensively.
Concerning Ray, Johnson said that he was from a criminal family having been raised in Ewing, Missouri. His father and brother both served prison time, as did James.

In April of 1967 Ray escaped from a prison in Missouri where he was serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery after being sentenced in 1960.

He was a wanted man at the time of the King assassination, Johnson said.

Johnson explained that it was believed that Ray and his brother had robbed a bank of $40,000 before the assassination.

That robbery was believed to have financed his world travels in his attempt to escape capture for the shooting of King.

According to Johnson, Ray had been in California at the same time that King had spoken at a rally. At that rally his itinerary was made public.

King was appearing in Memphis to lend his support to striking city sanitation workers.

On April 4, 1968 King was standing on the balcony of the city's Lorraine Motel when he was shot at 6:01 PM. King died within the hour.

Johnson said Ray had checked in at a boarding house across the street from King's motel.

He then shot King with a Remington 30.06 from the bathroom window of the motel, standing with one leg in the bathtub and bracing the rifle on the window sill. Johnson explained this while drawing a diagram on a sheet of paper marking the spots where King had stood and Ray had fired the rifle.

Johnson continued saying that Ray rolled the rifle up in a bed spread and walked out of the motel to the street.

At that point, Johnson said as he drew a line along the street in front of the boarding house on the diagram, Ray was headed to a parked white Ford Mustang.

He saw authorities standing at the end of the street and threw the rifle in some bushes. He then escaped to Atlanta, Georgia and on to Europe.

Johnson had stood with one foot in the bathtub to see the exact same scenario that Ray had seen that fateful day in 1968.

“Ray was not a good shot,” Johnson said as he pointed to the side of his face. “Ray had nearly missed Dr. King, hitting him in the cheek. But the bullet then hit his jaw bone and turned down into his body.”

Johnson had made nearly all of the steps Ray had made from his home to his capture.

Once he was caught, James Earl Ray pled guilty to assassinating Dr. King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison on March 10, 1969. He would later recant his story. He died in prison in 1999.

Johnson said that he did not believe there was a great conspiracy in the assassination of Dr. King other than the help Ray received along the way to elude authorities. He did believe that Ray’s brother knew of the assassination.

Johnson spent two and a half years on that assignment.

After the King investigation Johnson joined the law firm of McDaniels, Burdon and Brady, which at the time was the largest Black law firm in Washington, D.C.

After two years he opened the Gene R. Johnson and Associates Law Firm in February, 1982 and retired from the firm in February, 2013.

He and his wife Delores, who is from Memphis, have a son, Dwayne, who is an official with Homeland Security. He is a member of the AME Church denomination, he added.

Johnson has been involved in many events over his long legal career and wants to share those experiences with students who are now growing up in Gadsden County.

About the donation of the memories of Johnson, School Superintendent Reginald James said this would allow a whole new generation of students to learn about him and his accomplishments.

Plans are to create a special area at the school for the memoirs and a display of some of Johnson’s accomplishments next spring, James said.

MR.JOHNSON WHO I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ,BEFORD ,BUT LOVE TO MEET. I WENT TO CARTER-PARRMORE AFTER MR. JOHNSON IN THE EARLY 60S, BUT NO ONE TOLD ME ANYTHING ABOUT THIS MAN ,WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT. I THANK THE HEARLD FOR THIS GREAT STORY.WHAT HE IS DOING FOR EAST GADSDEN IS GREAT I HOPE TO SEE MORE . I AM FROM MT. PLESANT,FLA. NOW LIVING IN CHESTER,PENNA. PLEASE CONTACT ME -EMAIL FELTONH@HOTMAIL.COM.

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